


Got Me Wrong

by womenseemwicked



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Prison, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Bad Decisions, Bottom Steve Harrington, Confinement, Established Relationship, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Smut, Forbidden Love, Idiots in Love, M/M, Poor Life Choices, Reunion Sex, Reunions, Roommates, Sharing a Room
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-22
Updated: 2018-12-22
Packaged: 2019-09-24 12:32:07
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17100653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/womenseemwicked/pseuds/womenseemwicked
Summary: Hargrove is in for murder in the second degree. Harrington is in for… well, nobody really knows, but he’s on some crazy strong meds for nightmares and paranoia. They were cellies and they were inseparable for a year before Hargrove got sent away to a higher security prison in ‘89, but four years apart have changed their priorities and now it's hard to just come back.---oOo---Inspired by femmesteve and unlucky-watcher (idk their ao3)’s prison AU, then taken and run with because this is a concept I’ve been trying to write something for since I started transcribing parole hearings.(Oh also happy birthday, femmesteve! Hopefully you get notified of this in time for the day to not quite be over yet in your timezone, so it can be a present for that too!)





	Got Me Wrong

**Author's Note:**

  * For [femmesteve](https://archiveofourown.org/users/femmesteve/gifts).



> Fic title from a song by the same name by Alice In Chains because I was listening to nothing but grunge writing this AU and I can't make up titles to save my life.

It’s completely beyond him why the California Department of Corrections would move Billy to, of all prisons, one so overcrowded they’re housing new prisoners in the SHU, no room left in their intake wing, but _it’s not his place to question that, now is it?_ That’s all the CO pushing him toward his room sneers when he asks, and then the cell door slams behind him and Billy is left alone.

“Fuck,” he mutters and glances around his temporary home tiredly.

There are two bunks in here, a toilet, and even a single shelf for belongings, but no cellmate, he realizes, _for now_. Billy sets his bag on the top bunk and lies down on the mattress-less bottom one just for a second. It feels good to stretch out like this at least, after the long bus ride from up north. The first chance for a private breath since he got here.

He doesn’t mean to take a nap, but he must slip into one anyway because the next thing he knows, he’s being hollered at to stand against the wall by a guard outside and feels like he’s been asleep for hours. He does as he’s told, inked hands spread on the concrete wall, and listens as the cell door clanks open behind him.

“Enjoy your stay,” the guard snarls, shoving someone into the cell with him, and Billy groans internally. He’d hoped his inevitable celly would be another misplaced inmate from the intake wing, not someone from general population who’d landed themselves a trip to the hole. But from the sound of the inmate’s smug, “Oh, I will,” it sounds like this inmate’s here on fucking purpose. _Just_ what Billy fucking needs.

The door slams behind them again and Billy turns around quickly, ready to lay down the law in whatever minimal way he can manage without ending up in some kind of fight, but the words die on his tongue instantly.

“ _Billy_ ,” the stranger breathes, staring at him with the most beautiful brown eyes he’s ever seen and a smile that quickens Billy’s pulse. He steps closer, reaching out to touch, but Billy can’t take his eyes off the three dots tattooed by one eye. Can’t get over the thought that the Steve Harrington he knew four years ago had never been to the SHU, much less been pleased to be there.

He puts his hands out before Steve can close the distance between them and makes himself take a look at the rest of him now. His hair is longer, almost rock n’ roll by now, and he’s a little thicker now. He’s _strong_. Maybe as strong as Billy, even. In the back of his mind he wonders if that means he’s any less flexible than he once was, but Billy pushes that question away in favor of the more pressing one on his mind.

“What are you doing here?”

His voice is fucking hoarse as hell when it comes out of his mouth. It sounds like he spent the whole ride here with his head hanging out of the window, screaming. But Steve seems to like it just fine. He smiles and turns his face to kiss the hand on his shoulder and lets Billy hold them apart even though he could clearly get closer if he wanted to.

“They moved me here ‘bout 16 months ago,” he says, his hand coming up to rest on top of Billy’s.

Billy pulls back though, still tense, and shakes his head.

“Not what I mean,” he says and gestures to the close walls around them. “The fuck are you doing _here_?”

“Oh, in the hole?” Steve shrugs and leans closer in now that Billy’s hands aren’t stopping him. “Just a smuggling thing. Doesn’t matter. You’re here now.” He takes a deep breath, inhaling deep like Billy smells like anything but sweat and road dust.

Billy shudders and pushes him back.

“No, St-- _Harrington_ , it fucking does matter. Alright?” he bites out, and that finally catches Steve’s attention. He freezes, standing closer to the cell door than to Billy, and shakes his head slowly.

“Don’t call me that,” he says softly. “Not you.”

But Billy holds steadfast.

“Things have changed,” he says. “We’re different people. We can’t--”

“That’s _bullshit_ ,” Steve bursts out, glaring hard. Billy’s pulse quickens and he glances at the tiny window in their cell door, just waiting for a CO to come shut them up, but nothing happens besides Steve stepping in closer to block his view of the door completely. “We’ve never lied to each other before, baby, don’t lie to me now.”

Billy feels caught in the headlights, stepping back against the wall as Steve gets closer.

“Tell me _why_ ,” he insists, and Steve is right up against him now. Has Billy boxed in against the wall with their foreheads nearly touching, breathing shakily.

From this angle Billy can just barely see the curve of a faded heart, peeking out from under Steve’s red jumpsuit collar. His heart beats hard and Billy feels his last defense start to go down. He closes his eyes and frowns, letting out a breath.

“I-- _I’ve_ changed. Alright?” he admits, feeling Steve’s big, dark eyes watching him like every word he says is a betrayal. His voice shakes a little as he continues, but he has to say something. “My first chance at parole is in three years,” he says. “And I know it’s still a lot, but I can’t fuck around with the rules anymore if I plan on getting the fuck out of this place as soon as I can, and I fucking do, Steve. My little sister needs me to get out of here. _I_ need me to get out of here. I could still have a real _life_ after this!”

Steve frowns at him and pulls away, eyes overly bright, and Billy feels like shit. He hadn’t meant it that way, but the _and you probably won’t, with your 25 year minimum_ hangs in the air between them.

“What about _our_ life?” Steve asks, his voice tense. “What about _me_? _I_ need you.” He shakes his head, confused. “Max hasn’t even _talked_ to you since she testified at your trial!”

Billy feels sick but he pushes past Steve, pulling down the mattress he was sent with and moving to fix up the bottom bunk.

“She visited me,” he says. “Up north. Guess they’re living up there now since--” He chokes up a little, which is stupid since he and Max hadn’t even really said any of the important things. She’d visited him once a month or so the whole time he’d been at Pelican Bay, but they’d silently agreed not to talk about Neil and what happened. How Billy’s sentence had only been this long because he hadn’t bothered to check for witnesses when he’d stabbed his father in the heart three times, and because Max had told the court every detail of what she’d seen.

“I wanna be there for her like my dad never was for either of us. I wanna watch her grow up, and do my _own_ thing for once. And I can’t do that with a fucking gang member in my bed!”

He glances back at Steve and takes a steadying breath.

“You are now, aren’t you?” he asks.

Steve nods after a while and looks away.

“So there you have it then,” Billy sighs, and lays down on his bunk hard, staring up at the one above him hollowly.

Steve slides down the wall to sit on the cold concrete and Billy can hear sniffles coming from him, but he doesn’t acknowledge them. Can’t even look or he knows he’ll be right there crying with him. After a while, they stop on their own.

Billy pretends to sleep while Steve messes around, fixing up the top bunk for himself, and eats the tray of food they give him in silence on his bunk, completely put off by the weird loaf in the corner of it until he realizes it’s Christmas and recognizes the fruitcake. He sighs and remembers his and Steve’s first Christmas together, in that year they’d spent together before Billy’s misbehavior had caught up with him and got him sent away.

He hasn’t spent a Christmas with someone since then, and though it’d never been his favorite holiday to begin with Billy feels regretful.

“Hey,” he says then, normal volume, knowing it will carry up to Steve. “Eat down here with me.” He knows how cramped Steve must be, sitting on the top bunk with his dinner. That’s why he offers, he tells himself, but when Steve slips down the ladder and onto the bed next to him he feels warmer in a way he hasn’t in years and knows that’s just not true.

They eat in silence at first, but after a while Billy can’t ignore the fact that Steve’s right leg is creeping over between his in a way that even the cramped space of the bunk really doesn’t demand. He glances up to tell Steve to stop that, but before he can say any such thing Steve’s lips are covering his in that same perfect warmth and Billy can’t bring himself to pull away.

Steve parts his lips, and Billy’s tongue slips between them like he can’t help it, because he can’t. He groans softly and Steve pulls away at last, just an inch, his hand on the back of Billy’s neck keeping him from moving away.

“I missed you so fucking much,” he breathes.

And Billy just nods silently. He can’t do this. He can’t just acknowledge what he’s feeling and not want to fuck the life out of Steve. Can’t just fuck once while they’re in here and pretend he’s never known Harrington tomorrow when they’re back in general population and he’s got the eyes of the law looking down on him again. But… _fuck_...

Billy shoves his tray to the ground and turns into another kiss.

This time it’s Steve’s turn to moan, and he shoves his own tray down to join Billy’s before crawling over and climbing on top of his lap. They both gasp when their cocks brush hard through thick, state-issued clothes, and Billy pulls him back in close for another heady kiss.

He kisses down to Steve’s neck, to the hint of tattoo, and pulls his buttons open enough to show it off all the way. Presses a kiss into the slightly faded initials, tongues the shaky heart around it, and groans. Above him, Steve lets out a soft, choked sound.

“I need you,” Steve breathes into his mouth, and moves his hips. “Need you right now,” he insists, and brings Billy’s hands down to cup his ass.

Billy growls at how good it feels back in his hands like it never left, and feels his cock fatten up.

“Fuck. Yeah. Me too,” he mutters, feeling giddy and idiotic and like the rest of the world can go ahead and get fucked.

“Show me your ink, baby,” Steve asks, voice low and needy and warm up against Billy’s ear, and just like that Billy’s pushing Steve off his lap and joining him to stand, kicking their food trays out of the way to strip as they keep kissing everywhere they can reach.

When Billy finally stands before him naked, Steve groans and quickly drops to his knees down in front of him, trailing quick, hungry kisses down his tattooed chest and arms until he reaches what he’s looking for.

“Still gorgeous,” he murmurs, kissing the initials tattooed just next to his cock, on the soft skin of his inner thigh, licking the heart around it.

Billy’s heart skips a beat when Steve brushes his tongue over the head of his cock and back to the tattoo, then slips his perfect lips around Billy’s dick and sucks on it like he’s never tasted anything so good.

“So are you,” he grins back, leaning against the wall as he fists his hand in Steve’s long, thick hair, head swimming with everything he’s fucking feeling.

After a minute though, he pulls him back up close. Too much time alone and now just having Steve that far away is making him miss him anew, so he smashes their lips together instead and lets their bodies press together everywhere.

“You got so big without me around, baby,” he remarks as they kiss, his hands trailing down Steve’s thicker arms and his well-defined pecs. “Think you could throw _me_ around now?”

He’s half teasing, but the way his cock twitches between them betrays how hot that sounds to him. Steve moans and turns them around to press Billy’s back against the cold concrete, his hands mirroring the same touches that Billy was just using on him.

“Think you could still fuck me into this wall?” he challenges. And Billy groans. Steve must be up at least a couple pounds in muscle and the soft layer of fat that prison food will give to you if you eat enough of it, but suddenly he wants nothing more than to try.

“I’ve got lube in my bag,” he huffs out, and Steve is off him in a second, grabbing it. He doesn’t even hand it over though, doesn’t lay out for Billy to have his wicked way with just yet. Soon as he’s got the little tub of vaseline in his hand Steve props one leg up on the bottom bunk and shoves his own fingers straight into his ass with a soft breath.

“ _Fuck_ ,” Billy breathes and steps closer to kiss him, only pulling back to watch as Steve fingers himself open expertly. It stirs something deep inside him, though, besides the arousal, and he wonders. Glances up at Steve’s face to question him, but Steve just grins and kisses him.

“Only you, baby,” he promises. “You, the stuff I’ve smuggled, and sometimes a stolen cucumber when I get lucky.” He winks.

Billy can’t help but smirk back and shake his head.

“You’re fucking insatiable,” he murmurs and pulls their lips back together as Steve moans around what must be his third finger.

Billy takes some lube from him then and slicks up his cock just in time for Steve to deem himself ready, and the tub gets thrown back onto Billy’s mattress as the two press back up against the wall with a shared groan.

“Come here, pretty boy,” Billy growls as they pull close, and in a moment Steve’s got both his legs wrapped tight around Billy’s hips. They groan as cocks brush hard and slick, and Billy slips a hand down under Steve’s ass to adjust them, line them up perfectly.

He groans at just the feeling of slick muscle twitching up against his head, but then Steve is groaning and pressing down, trying to take him _now_ , and Billy can’t help but help him out and shove right in.

They both groan soft into each other’s mouths at the feeling, and Billy squeezes at Steve’s pretty thighs just to keep himself grounded as the pleasure rushes straight to his head.

“I missed you so much,” he only admits then, and Steve whines and eats it up, pulling Billy impossibly closer.

“Fuck me, baby,” he breathes back, voice wrecked, and Billy can’t help but obey.

This position has never been easy, exactly, but it was certainly less hard when Steve had been just a little more than skin and bones. And now Steve has strong thighs wrapped around him so tight Billy can barely move anyway, so it’s not long before his ambitious first few thrusts slow down and he has to slow to a stop with a groan.

“I can’t fuck you like this, Stevie,” he half laughs when his thighs start to burn with the exertion. “You’re too damn heavy for it now,” he complains.

Steve whines but takes the loss alright anyway when Billy slips out of him and sets him back down. “Guess you’ll just have to work out harder for me, then,” he teases, brushing his hands down Billy’s flushed biceps appraisingly.

Billy mumbles a response against his skin and pushes at Steve, turning him around to face the wall quickly.

“Good you’ve been working this thing out too,” he admires, giving Steve’s pretty ass a squeeze and a soft slap. His hips jerk forward and then press back toward Billy as he hums agreement. “Didn’t think it could get any better, but here it is,” he praises, and slips his cock back between Steve’s pale, spread cheeks.

Steve arches back into him and reaches back to clutch at Billy’s waist with a heavy breath.

“Yeah,” he says absently, and Billy grins and fucks into him again. “ _Yeah_ ,” he groans when Billy’s pace picks up and hits just the right spot. “ _Billy_ ,” he gasps, and Billy lets him entwine their fingers till they’re holding hands against the wall while Billy fucks into him deep.

“So good, baby,” he murmurs against the soft skin of his shoulder, kissing moles. “ _Fuck_ you always take me so perfect. My pretty boy cockslut prison wife,” he slurs a little, feeling so close to the edge. Steve whines and tightens around him so that Billy sees stars, but the next second he’s pushing him off.

Billy groans and tries to push back in, but Steve stops him easily. Turns around and kisses him back to the bunk a step, and then lays down on it, looking up at him with wide, inviting eyes. He gives Billy’s hand a tug and spreads his legs enough to give Billy room to join him on the hard mattress.

“Come on, baby,” he breathes. “Make me yours again. Please.”

Billy’s chest feels tight as he nods and crawls over on top of him for a long kiss, but Steve’s touch makes him feel whole. It’s the slowest and the deepest and best kiss they’ve had yet, bodies pressed together from shoulder to ankle and hands restlessly touching, and Billy feels so alive he wonders now at how he ever thought he’d lived before this moment. Then Steve hooks his legs around Billy’s ass tightly, and reaches down to line them up again.

And he sinks in so easy this time that it feels almost accidental. Incidental to the closeness of the rest of their bodies in such a deliciously natural way, like their bodies remember each other better than they do. Steve hums and closes his eyes and urges Billy to move, and Billy does. Only, he’s been so close to coming for so long now that it somehow doesn’t feel as pressing as it usually does.

So his thrusts get deeper and plenty hard, plowing into Steve’s ass like he’s trying to plant something in there, but he doesn’t speed up now at all. Just luxuriates a little in having Steve beneath him again at long last, arching and sighing and looking so fucking beautiful with Billy’s cock buried deep.

Only when this approach gets Steve looking utterly debauched - cheeks flushed and murmuring to Billy about how much he needs it, needs his cock, needs to come - does Billy lean in for another kiss and throw his pace into overdrive.

If it weren’t built into the wall, the bunk would be slamming against it in earnest by then. As it is, the only thing giving them away is Steve’s unmuffleable moans and the wet sounds of skin on skin. Steve comes even with his hands busy touching all of Billy, when Billy brushes his thumb lightly over just the tip of his thick, weeping cock. He gets it all between their heaving chests, and Billy groans and milks him through it just like he always does.

Billy follows soon after, spilling inside of Steve with what feels more like a choked-off sob than a proper moan. He half-collapses over Steve’s messy chest, realizes giddily that he’s no longer in danger of crushing him like this, and settles down fully to catch his breath.

And it’s comfortable physically, the best thing Billy’s felt in years, but once their breathing is back to normal silence falls between them like a shroud. Both open their mouths to start to talk several times, but every time Billy tries to figure out what this all means or what’s going to happen next, an aching takes over where his heart is supposed to be and he can’t think. In the end, it’s Steve who breaks the silence.

“I wrote to you,” his voice is quiet in the room, but it rumbles in his chest a little. “Every day at first, and then every week, and then… I figured you would’ve responded if you wanted to.”

The question hangs in the air for a moment, but Billy just shakes his head and kisses Steve’s soft skin.

“They never made it through,” he says. “I would’ve--” His voice feels thick in his throat thinking about Steve out here all alone, thinking he’d given him up on purpose. Not entirely without cause, but still. He kisses Steve again. “I would’ve wrote back, I promise.”

Steve holds his gaze for a long moment then nods and pulls Billy closer to him.

“I did it for you, you know,” he says, and Billy doesn’t know what he’s talking about at all but he figures this is a wait-it-out moment more than a demand-answers one, so he stays quiet, just listening to Steve’s heartbeat in his chest and tracing the muscles of his arm with a fingertip.

“The minute they took you away I started breaking all the rules I could so they’d bump up my custody level. So I could get home to you.”

Billy frowns and sits up a little to see Steve’s face. He looks so serious, even with the muscles in his face still relaxed from orgasm. Billy smiles a little and shakes his head.

“ _That’s_ why you joined a gang?” he asks.

Steve nods. “Shot-caller,” he corrects a little smugly. “I was never much good at smuggling or making shivs or any of that, and I didn’t want to fight without backup, so now I don’t,” he grins. “I have a whole system in place for taking as much heat as I can when my little gang of misfits gets in trouble. Think I would’ve been sent up north to you in another couple months at most.”

Steve wraps himself around Billy a little tighter and hums when their softened cocks brush together. Billy feels warm all over despite the chill in the air.

He reaches up and traces a finger over the three inked dots by Steve’s eye. They look good there, if he’s being honest. At home with all his pretty moles.

“You wanted something to show the CO’s what kind of inmate you were without aligning you to any particular gang,” he says softly.

Steve just nods, and Billy leans in to press their lips together in a long, slow kiss.

“You shouldn’t have done that for me, baby,” he breathes when they come apart. “That was so fucking stupid.”

There’s a set to Steve’s jaw at that, though, and Billy remembers too late the massive chip on his shoulder his pretty boy has about that particular word.

“I’m not stupid,” he says, shoving Billy just enough to push him off and rolling to his side. The bed really isn’t big enough for this but Billy also doesn’t want to let Steve move away just yet so he wraps around him tight from behind and buries his face in dark hair.

Steve lets him with a sigh.

“I don’t wanna live without you anymore,” he confesses after a while, still turned away, and pulls Billy’s arms tighter around him. “You’re everything I’ve ever needed, baby. I can’t do this shit alone.”

The thought of the 20 years Steve still has to go left on his sentence, of him in prison alone for even 15 of them, makes Billy’s breaths feel suddenly wetter and his chest feel full of something cold and heavy. The thought that that’s what he’s facing if Billy does the selfish thing and tries to get out on his own now -- because he tells himself it’s for Maxine, but the girl’s nearly grown anyway. He knows she’ll fare just fine without him there…

“You’re not gonna face it alone, pretty boy,” Billy says decisively, and he pulls Steve’s hair away from the inked heart on his neck and kisses close to it long and sweet. “Not while I’ve got fucking breath.”

Because what’s another 20 when there’s no Steve Harrington on the outside?

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so I fell into this AU _real hard_ in writing this. I tried to make it unique enough from femmesteve’s AU that I wasn’t just rewriting one of the various and v good drabbles they’ve done for their thing, but I’m worried that paring my one down to just this one scene might not have shown just how in-depth I’ve thought about this whole AU haha so, uh...  
> Not saying I’m _going_ to write more for this AU in the near future, but uh… I may be persuaded to put my other thoughts on this world up in story form at some point.


End file.
